Color Theory

Talking with Crystal, reading books about mosaic I found chapters about how to choose colors in the art. I usually choose colors instinctively, my eyes tell me what works and I just feel what looks good or not. It is great to know the facts standing behind my feelings, so I started looking for more details about color wheel to make my own notes with links for future help and study.

It is funny what I found… how to pick up paint colors, design web site, even color my hair… In every situation the color theory is the same… So no matter what I read I would find the information I need

So I will not spend lots of time in editing, I decided to post my searching results with links + main info. Maybe it will help other people too.

http://library.thinkquest.org/04apr/00650/webdesign/colortheory.html

There are three primary colors – red, yellow and blue. Combinations of these three colors produce three secondary colors: purple (red and blue), green (blue and yellow) and orange (yellow and red). Further mixing of these colors can produce a whole range of tertiary colors from which to design components of your site. Usually, these colors are arranged in what is known as a color wheel.

To get complimentary colors that accent each other and make your site more interesting, all you have to do is study the color wheel and choose colors opposite from one another. For example, red purple is the compliment of yellow green, and orange red is the compliment of blue green.

Colors can vary in tone or hue. Hue is the difference in colors themselves (green versus blue), while tone is the degree of color (dark to light).

There are also the monochromatic colors of white and black. White and black can decrease or increase the shade, or richness of color, that you choose – in other words, adding white makes colors lighter and adding black makes colors darker. Making colors lighter with white is known as creating variations in tint, while making colors darker with black is known as creating different shades.

http://www.artsparx.com/color_complementary.asp

prime-comp01 Complementary colors are opposite on the color wheel. Red and green, yellow and violet, blue and orange, are the three simple pairs of complementary colors. These colors always go well with each other, hence the term complimentary.

http://www.dimensionsthruart.com/pages.php?pageid=25

A helpful tool in playing with color is the color wheel. The color wheel can be used in three ways in helping you choose color for the piece of art to buy or to create.

The first possibility is to use Complementary Colors.

Pick a color on the color wheel then draw a straight line across the color wheel, this is the color’s complement. These colors are basically opposites. On the wheel we started with yellow and its complement or opposite is violet. The complementary colors are used to offset the main color and are thought to complete each other.
There are also split complementary colors which means that once you pick the complimentary you choose one of the colors next to it giving it a more subtle look.

The next approach would be to use Analogous Colors.

This is when you choose a color on the color wheel that is next to the color you are choosing. If we choose yellow the analogous colors would be yellow green and yellow orange. This type of color choice is great when you don’t want to match the exact color or if you want to use your art work and/or accessories to create the dramatic colors in the room highlighting the art. Quite often neutrals are used when highlighting the art work such as white, off whites, grays and browns, even black.

The final approach we will discuss is the use of Triad Colors.

Choose a color on the color wheel then draw an equilateral triangle to find the two other colors. You will notice that each color has 3 colors between them to form the triangle. Let’s choose violet, the other two colors will be orange and green. These colors would be the secondary colors. The approach organizes the colors in terms of purity but can be a little more difficult to work with.